School lunch blogger 'Mrs. Q' drops anonymity

Sarah Wu does not look like a troublemaker. The slight, blond mom comes off, by her own admission, as "a super nice person … without a bad word to say."

That may be why the speech pathologist was able to crank out an incisive daily blog scrutinizing school meals for an entire year without anyone suspecting her. Writing as "Mrs. Q," she bought lunch each school day of 2010, photographed it, ate it and wrote about it that night under the title Fed Up With Lunch.

One early post noted: "Oftentimes what is served barely passes muster as something edible." A few days later: "I want less pre-fab food and higher quality options. Less crap, you know?" A lasagna lunch drew this review: "Wow. Truly monumentally bad. I couldn't get through the main entree. I was hungry too."

The blog quickly became a minor sensation, but its writer fiercely guarded her anonymity, fearing termination from the Chicago Public Schools, where she was employed.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" this morning, the author of a new book, also called "Fed Up With Lunch," noted that one of the reasons her blog was so popular was because many parents aren't aware of what's actually being served at school.

"Parents were totally shocked. ... Many parents really have no clue what's happening in the cafeteria and what the kids are eating," said Wu, who was identified by name on the show.

Through her months of research, Wu said she found that many versions of chicken nuggets are half chicken and half fillers, and that school pizza can have up to 64 ingredients.

CPS sent a statement to the show noting recent changes to its food program, and Wu acknowledged that she did see a small increase in fruits and vegetables over the calendar year.

The speech pathologist, however, emphasized that she believes students need longer lunch periods. "They are getting these overly processed foods and not enough time to eat," she said.

When asked what she expects the response to be from other teachers and the district, Wu simply said, "I have no idea what the reaction will be. ... I just hope for the best."

Speaking to the Tribune at her dining room table last week, Wu said the project was born after she forgot her lunch one day, bought the school lunch instead and started worrying about its effect on students.

Soon she was writing thoughtful, often funny blog entries about the surprising parade of plastic-wrapped, processed foods that appeared on her tray each day — from bagel dogs, popcorn chicken and Salisbury steak to green gelatin, peanut butter and jelly bars, and blue raspberry ice pops.

Glib and confident online, Wu came off as thoughtful and soft-spoken in person. She also seemed anxious about how her friends, extended family and former colleagues at Haugan Elementary — she's teaching at other CPS schools this year — would feel about her yearlong secret.

"I spent a lot of time worrying about that," said Wu, 34. "I lived with a lot of inner turmoil, thinking: 'What did I do? This was stupid.' … But I had to hold it all in."

With a toddler (Charlie, now 3) and a full-time job, Wu initially questioned the wisdom of launching the project, as did her husband, Mike. But she convinced herself she would only spend five minutes a day on the blog and few people would even see it.

"Then at least I would have made a public record of these lunches that bothered me so much," Wu said. "Maybe nobody would find it, but at least I would have done something to state my opinion and it would be out there and that would be that."

But that wasn't that. Within two weeks, one of the most influential voices in American nutrition — author and New York University professor Marion Nestle — found Fed Up With Lunch and reported on her Food Politics blog that "an intrepid school teacher, Mrs. Q, has vowed to eat school lunches every day for a year. … Will she survive? I can't wait to find out."

What followed was an explosion of readers and appearance requests from "Good Morning America," National Public Radio and national conferences. British chef Jamie Oliver, who had just launched his "Food Revolution" television show, called to offer encouragement. Fearing too much exposure, Wu finally stopped accepting requests.

Several readers shared Nestle's concern for Wu's survival, but survive she did. While the year brought plenty of stomach trouble, Wu says she ended up maintaining her weight and even dropped 20 points from her cholesterol six months in.

"Part of the reason was that I completely changed my relationship with food at home," Wu said. "When you know that one meal every day is going to be school lunch, you are really focused on making sure breakfast and dinner are phenomenal."

She also notes that her school meals were portioned for children and that she stopped drinking the school milk when she decided it was making her feel sick. In 2011 Wu also went gluten-free, leaving her 10 pounds lighter and feeling much better, she said.

Working with special-needs kids and writing a book have fulfilled Wu's longtime dreams of writing and helping others, she said. But she hasn't always felt this way about her job. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin she came to Chicago to work at Kraft Foods, where she handled supply chain logistics for nearly four years.

"I was tired of picking up the phone to find someone yelling at me because another truckload of hot dogs didn't arrive on time," she said. "I realized, this is not why I was put on this earth."

She enrolled at Northwestern University for a masters degree in speech pathology, which she has practiced — in Spanish and English — at CPS for five years. Wu lives in the suburbs, which CPS permits because demand for speech therapists is so high.

While Fed Up With Lunch takes a stark and often critical look at the school food — in her case, served by a CPS caterer called Preferred Meal Systems — Wu offers generous props to lunchroom managers, cooks and others who must prepare thousands of hot meals for often-choosy customers each day.

She even posted an interview on her site with Bob Bloomer, who oversees the main CPS lunch contract won by Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality. Other features have included guest bloggers and essays on obesity, celiac disease, milk and lunches around the world, with a lively stream of comments trailing each post.

Her book expands on these themes while offering more material about her relationship with food and the fear and craziness that unfolded behind the scenes as the blog took on a life of its own — attracting sometimes 4,000 hits a day. She's also penned a chapter on how citizens can work to improve school food in their communities.

Although the school lunch experiment is well behind her, Wu continues to blog on food policy, school issues and personal health. She also still features regular posts and photos of the lunches she eats each day at school. Only these days, she happily serves as her own lunch lady.

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